Acuity Principal Most predicts $3B in biometrics investment in 2021

The growing wave of investment in biometrics and identity verification has major implications for how technology providers in the space should be going to market, which were explored in a recent presentation by Acuity Market Intelligence Principal Analyst Maxine Most, just as Nametag, Basis ID and Legal Bricks joined or moved further into the biometric onboarding market.

Biometric onboarding is just “the first nut” in the broader identity verification market to be “cracked,” Most said in a presentation on ‘Harnessing the Tornado Part 2’ in a Find Biometrics virtual event. The shift in the biometrics industry brought on by widespread digital transformation was discussed by Most earlier this year. The biometric digital identity space has received $2.2 billion in investment from the beginning of 2021 to the middle of September, and Most sees it reaching $3 billion before the end of the year.

“I’m talking to companies that are 500 times the revenue that they had last year, and everyone thinks they’re really special, but they all need to know it’s happening to everybody,” Most says. Companies that were booking a few million dollars in revenue a year ago are trying to figure out how to operationalize on a global level.

Differentiation, however, is minimal among identity verification payers, according to Most. That lack, combined with a lack of sophisticated understanding of how biometric digital ID verification works has created an opportunity for thought leadership and market education.

Onboarding solutions with face biometrics launched by Nametag, Basis ID, Legal Bricks

Nametag has joined the biometric onboarding market with the release of a platform to enable businesses and consumers to prove verify their identity online with ‘Multi-Factor Identity’ and advanced biometrics, according to a company announcement.

The Nametag no-code identity verification platform provides smartphone-based account access and biometric authentication, with granular user control, the company says. Users scan a government-issued ID document and verify their identity with selfie biometrics. The platform also allows users to reject requests from companies to share their data.

“Privacy online is a broken promise. Our mission is to bring authenticity to the internet and enable people to build more trusted relationships,” comments Nametag Founder Aaron Painter.

Painter previously served as the VP of Microsoft China and CEO of Cloudreach.

Nametag is pitched at banking, cryptocurrency, gaming, and social media service providers.

The company says Nametag has been tested in all 50 states, and is now available for iOS and Android.

A new biometric know your customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering service has been launched by Basis ID to provide real-time identity verification.

The new, fully automated Entr solution provides document authentication with optical character recognition (OCR) and selfie biometrics with liveness detection. The latter feature checks liveness through one of three types of head movements. Randomizing the liveness check action prevents the use of data sets purchased from the dark web by malicious actors, the company claims.

“Advanced functionality of ‘Entr’ and its flexibility allows proving identity by the simple head movement, in a matter of seconds and, above all, with complete confidence. It is our ‘here and now’ approach and we really have done our best to make it all function perfectly together,” says Akim Arhipov, executive director of Basis ID. “This is an important development in the field of remote identity verification, which concerns companies of all industries where verification service is required.”

In addition to the biometric analysis of 50 video frames, Entr includes politically exposed persons (PEP) and sanctions list checks, and can verify more than 3,000 government-issued documents.

Real estate and legal services-focused security and compliance technology provider Legal Bricks has launched checks with face biometrics both as a standalone product or through its LB Connect onboarding portal for the conveyancing industry.

Built through a partnership with an unnamed biometrics platform, the new service also includes liveness and document authenticity check, and is intended to compliment Legal Bricks’ AML checks.

Article Topics

Acuity  |  Basis ID  |  biometric liveness detection  |  biometrics  |  digital ID  |  identity verification  |  KYC  |  Maxine Most  |  NameTag  |  OCR  |  onboarding